3 Months Old Already!

This weekend we went and had Natalie's pictures made, and took our first official "family" shot. One of my co-worker's has a daughter who works at Sear's Photo in town, and she was able to cut us a little bit of a deal. Pictures are so expensive, but I know that it is one thing I will never regret spending the money on. Erica took some great pictures, don't you think? :)





























































There are so many good one's it was hard to choose what hard copy prints we wanted! So we just got a viriaty. :)

She seems to be growing by the minute. This past week her appitite has really increased. I guess she is going through a little growth spurt. The down side to this is that it has been messing with her schedule. Instead of waking up at 6:30ish, she has woken up at 5ish to chow down. You can see from a couple of the pictures how well she is holding her head up! She is a mover. She scoots and wiggles when you hold her and scoots and wiggles when you lay her down and in her crib at night. and she LOVES to kick and kick and kick. I'm sure she'll be crawling before we know it!
The only other news to report is that we said good bye to the sleepy sack on her 3 month birtday. She has been doing pretty good without it. It was AWESOME, and we will definitely be using it again when baby #2 comes along..., but that won't be for a while! I think it really helped her sleep and stay asleep at night - one of the best inventions ever in my opinion. Natalie also doesn't have much interest in her pacifier any more. If it doesn't have anything coming out of it, she doesn't want to have any of it! She is so funny. The only exception to the rule is that she will usually take it for about 30 seconds at a time when we are trying to put her down for the night.
For those of you wonder what a couple who has a new baby does on Valentine's Day, here's a little synopsis:
Wake up at 5, feed Natalie.
Go back to sleep until 9:30 (yea for Saturday!)
9:35 Make Coffee! and feed Natalie
10:00 Start on the eventually 5 loads of laundry that have piled up over the week.
12:00 - Eat mixed berry pancakes (homemade) and sausage at the request of my hubby
12:30 - 4 - Play with Natalie, feed her, do more laundry, clean out old clothes from the closet
4 - Grab a quick shower
4:15 - feed Natalie while Nick cleans up
4:45 - go for a beautiful 2.5 mile walk in one of Lakeland's parks where we saw a bald eagle! Very cool and very beautiful.
6- 7 - head to Lowes and Sams, feed Natalie
The rest of the evening was spent doing our little "tradition" of grilled steaks, bruchetta, and salad with a glass of wine of course, feeding Natalie and putting her down.
We watched half of a movie before Natalie woke up and wanted to eat again. By the time I fed her for the final time, we were both so tired we just went to bed. Maybe we can finish that movie tonight.... :)
It was a different sort of Valentine's Day, but wonderful none the less. There was much love, and much to be thankful for this year. God has truly blessed us.

I hope you felt love this weekend and always. Have a wonderful week!

The Homeland

Ah Texas. My homeland. Even if I never live another day as a Texas resident, I will ALWAYS be a Texan. If you've never lived there you think I'm crazy, but if you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

It was so wonderful to be able to spend cherished time with my family. I am so thankful for all the time -10 whole days! Here (finally) are some pictures of the trip:

Aunt Courtney and Natalie


Papa and Natalie taking a snoozer


Natalie with Great PawPaw


Natalie with Great Gran


My cute little butterfly outfit:





Natalie and Mommy


The Twins - JoJo and JeJe


JeJe and a sweet sleeping Natalie Shea


My mommy, daddy, and baby girl


The Ladies


Me and my sweet baby



Sisters!

Running a Marathon

Ever feel like you are running a marathon? Every day this week has seemed like a blurr. I get to the end of the day and think to myself, "Whoa. What just happened?!" This is my first week back to work full time and Natalie's first week with Edi - our fabulous sitter. She spent her first day adjusting to a new environment and getting to know Edi. By yesterday they were good friends. She is such an easy baby and a joy to be around.
She continues to sleep like a champ. Last night was her longest sleep ever! Despite my attempts to feed her before I left for work this morning, she continued to sleep like a log. Nick called and said he finally woke her up at 10 because he needed to get to work! 13 hours! Man. She is her father's daughter. He'd sleep that long if I let him. She is also holding her head up more and more and better and better every day. Her smiles are more frequent and in response to our smiles vs. smiling randomly. I can wait to hear that first giggle! :) Natalie still fits into most of her 3 month clothes, but she is a long one and some of her sleepers are getting a little short.
A couple months ago when we got our new TV we decided to let ourselves get sub-basic cable (about 20 channels - the main networks and PBS and such). We have never had cable of any kind before - just what we could pick up on the bunny ears. Along with that we also went nuts and got Internet service at our house - also something we never had previously. We decided that we could swing $30 a month for BOTH (I know great deal, huh?). Anyway, when they hooked us up, we of course got "free" channels for 2 months. That's how they try and hook you. It was really nice to have while I was on maternity leave. Well, the "free" ended on Tuesday. I must admit that I already miss Food Network and TLC, but I will learn to cope. :) What am I saying? I don't have time for TV anyway!
At work, my team is in their busiest season of the year and we are swamped! It seems there aren't enough hours in the day, but all we can do is all we can do. It's like this every year and comes as no surprise to anyone.
We finally got some Baptism pictures from my sister. We of course didn't have our camera and thus didn't have ANY pictures of the big day. Thanks to Courtney, we now have some. Hopefully, we can get a few posted before long. Better late than never I suppose....
It is COLD here. Now, before you start on us about living in Florida, it really has been cold the past few days. The highs haven't been out of the low 50's and this morning when I was driving to work it was 28! I actually pulled out my winter coat for the first time this winter. I know. Poor baby, right? Reminds me why I like Florida so much.
Update on Bella (our black cat). I don't remember if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but we thought we had lost her the middle of January, right before I left for Texas. Well, God heard my cries, and Bella did return a day and a half later - with a limp. Poor thing dragged herself home. We took her to the vet and were told that she had really messed up her knee - torn and/or injured the ligaments in her knee. We have been giving her meds to help her heal and she is doing much better. I tell you what. I am so thankful to have her back, though. She is my little lover kitty. She just follows me around the house waiting to be pet and curls up right beside Natalie and I when we are sitting on the couch.
All the while this is going on we are having a big crisis with our insurance company. Chalk it up to stupid first time parents - we didn't know we had to "formally" call and inform them to add Natalie. Well, we got our first bill and it said no insurance coverage. We called and they proceeded to inform us that we had not called and informed them within 30 days of her birth, therefore she would not be able to be enrolled until November 2009! Many tears, calls, appeals, and prayers later, we finally got her added. What a mess. Insurance companies are tricky tricky and it's always about money. The slogans that say they "care" about their customers are all a big pile of poo. Anywho, we praise God for the great outcome. We have learned our lesson for sure. Nick said he was going to call them every time his butt itched. That makes me laugh every time I think about it! :)
That should catch you up on the madness that is the Moss household. Hope your life is a little less hectic, but just as wonderful. :)

3 months old and 4 states

Hi all (it's Nick)
Well, it has been fun at the Moss house these past few weeks. Natalie is growing and changing everyday.

While Candace and Natalie were in Texas, I got a lot of stuff done at church but not so much at home. 5 Days after they got back to Lakeland, we got on a plane for St. Louis to visit our friends in Illinois. We spent 2 days in Spfd. with Jake and Tara and then went down to Hoyelton to stay with the Theilen's. Josh and Rebekah asked us to be Godparents to Judah Nicklaus Theilen. Yep, that's right, Judah's middle name is named after me. So I affectionately call him " J. Nicklaus." I think it will stick!

It was a great time to visit with such great friends. Candace and I are blessed to have so many great friends. Friends that we can count on to be there for us when things are going good or bad.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend. May God bless your week!

Candace and Natalie inside from the cold.

Natalie meet Mady


Baptism of Judah


What a crew!


Sunset from the Theilen's backyard


Natalie meet Judah

Howdy from Texas

Hello all. Sorry I have not posted in quite a while. I have been taking advantage of my maternity leave and am spending 10 days in Texas with my family. So far we have seen great Gran and Pawpaw, Aunt Courtney, and great Aunt JoJo (mom's twin).
We are having a great time. Mom and Dad have REALLY SLOW internet service out here in what my family refers to as "Hooterville", so I can't put many pictures up. But, here's a few to tide you over until I get back to the sunshine state.
BTW: Natalie did excellent on the plane ride, and is starting to get into a great sleep schedule. She's been going down between 8:30 and 9:30 and waking up around 6 each morning. She eats and then goes back to bed for 2 or 3 hours. What a great little sleeper she is! Not much else to report. She has been loving her little play mat recently, and found her hands about a week and a half ago, so she has enjoyed sucking and licking her little fingers and grabbing her blankie or shirt to suck on.
That's about all the news for now. Love to you all. ~Candace

As you can see, she is growing and changing all the time!

Hard Times

Well, this week I started back to work on a part time basis. As you can imagine, it was an emotionally rough weekend. The conflicting emotions of know I don't want to stay home, but at the same time not wanting to leave Natalie. Monday was hard, but it has gotten better. It's funny how I find myself more engaged with her when I get home than I ever was when I spent the whole day with her.....
Returning to work hasn't been too bad, except it's frustrating trying to do a full time job on a part time basis, but I am learning to deal. The other big bummer was that all managers' salaries are being frozen this year, so we won't even get our little raise at annual review time. Great. Lovely. And in the year when we will be having the large expense of childcare. Oh well, I am thankful to have a job, and we have never had to go without food, clothing, or shelter. God will continue to take care of us just like he always has.
On Wednesday, Natalie had to get her first immunizations. Poor baby. They stuck her 3 times and she DID NOT like it at all. She was pretty sleepy for the rest of the day until about 4:30 and she was up and had some good awake time before going to bed.

Alright, so I won't be completely negative. Here are some blessings and excitement:
Natalie is an AWESOME sleeper, and we are so thankful for that! She usually goes down between 10:30 and 11:30 and sleeps until 5:30 to 6:30. She eats and then goes back to bed until 9:30 or 10. (She has been "sleeping through the night 6-7 hours at a time - for about three weeks now.) This week she has done perfectly with my work schedule. She eats in time for me to get ready and be at work by 7.
She has been enjoying her bouncy seat and play mat much more. She will spend a good bit being happy and contented looking and "playing" (kicking her legs and moving her arms like there's no tomorrow). Natalie has also been smiling much more and that is such a joy to see! She is getting more fun by the day. I can't wait to hear her giggle - I'm sure it won't be long.
Natalie and I are heading to Texas a week from today to visit JeJe and Papa as well as other family that will travel up to see us (her). :) You only get maternity leave once per baby, so I thought I'd take full advantage and take a visit. We'll be there for 10 days, and poor Nick will be roughing it by himself.
Lastly, Nick and I became "parents" again on Tuesday! Our good friends Josh and Rebekah had their 3rd child - Judah Nicklaus. His middle name is after Nick, and we were asked to be God-parents! We are truly honored and excited for this special privilege. Congrats again to the T's!! Hopefully things will work out and we will be able to make it to the Baptism - in Illinois.

** A happy late anniversary to my wonderful husband! December 28th we celebrated 6 years together! Time flies when you're having fun. Every day that passes I realize all the more how blessed I am to have you for my husband and the father of my daughter. I love you!

Christmas Day

We had a lovely Christmas Day, just the three of us. Natalie was such a great baby and spent the morning sitting in her little chair watching us open gifts. She liked the sound of the paper crinkling and the bright colors to look at.
Here are a few pictures of the morning:

Our tree with all the gifts wrapped up.


Santa brought Natalie Brightheart Raccoon the Care Bear Cousin:


Natalie and Daddy


Candace got some beautiful butterfly earrings. I love James Avery! Thanks mom and dad!


Nick got a really cool grilling cook book and has already prepared two great dinners!


Thank you Je Je and Pa Pa for the Very Hungry Caterpillar book. That is one of my mommy's favorites. :)


Thanks Great Gran and Paw Paw for the toys!


Thank you aunt Courtney for my book and my ducky!


As you can see, we had a wonderful Christmas. I'm sure next year will be quite different as Natalie will be ripping open her own gifts. It's hard to imagine her that big, but it is also hard to believe that she has already grown so much already!

Lastly, I leave you with one last picture of Natalie from 2008. Happy New
Year to everyone!

Christmas Happenings

Hello all (this is Nick)
We hope that your Christmas was as great as ours. This was Natalie's first Christmas, so it was extra special for us. The great thing was that we didn't have to buy her any presents! Don't worry, she got enough presents from the rest of her family!

We had my side of the family come down on December 27 and will leave on January 2. (Mom and Dad; Murray and Danielle; Abby and Michael; Grandma Z)

Here are some pictures from our time together:
Mommy and Natalie

Beach Bums- Grandpa and Natalie

First time in the Ocean

Only one on the Beach

Daddy and Natalie napping

Michael and Abby enjoying the warm weather

Nana and Natalie

Daddy, Mommy, and Natalie Footprints

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

We all attended a very fun Christmas Party last night. The hosts have such a beautiful home - especially now decked out for Christmas. We couldn't resist such a wonderful photo op. Thanks to Great Paw Paw Ray and Granna Sue for the adorable personalized Christmas Jammies!
Wishing you all a joyful Christmas where ever this may find you, rejoicing in the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Caught!

We finally snagged a couple pictures of Natalie smiling. She doesn't do it too much just yet, but when she does, it is absolutely heart melting. Natalie has also started to "talk" to us some this week. :)